Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been used as a cancer therapy for forty years but has not yet advanced to a mainstream cancer treatment. Although PDT has been shown to be an efficient photochemical way to destroy local tumors by a combination of non-toxic dyes and harmless visible light, it is its additional effects in mediating the stimulation of the host immune system that gives PDT a great potential to become more widely used. Although the stimulation of tumor-specific cytotoxic T-cells that can destroy distant tumor deposits after PDT has been reported in some animal models, it remains the exception rather than the rule. This realization has prompted several investigators to test various combination approaches that could potentiate the immune recognition of tumor antigens that have been released after PDT. Some of these combination approaches use immunostimulants including various microbial preparations that activate Toll-like receptors and other receptors for pathogen associated molecular patterns. Other approaches use cytokines and growth factors whether directly administered or genetically encoded. A promising approach targets regulatory T-cells. We believe that by understanding the methods employed by tumors to evade immune response and neutralizing them, more precise ways of potentiating PDT-induced immunity can be devised.

Vascular targeted photodynamic therapy (V-PDT) has been widely used for the prevention or treatment of vascular-related diseases, such as localized prostate cancer, wet age-related macular degeneration, port wine stains, esophageal varices and bleeding gastrointestinal mucosal lesions. In this study, the fundamental mechanisms of vascular responses during and after V-PDT will be introduced. Based on the V-PDT treatment of blood vessels in dorsal skinfold window chamber model, the structural and functional imaging, which including white light microscopy, laser speckle imaging, singlet oxygen luminescence imaging, and fluorescence imaging for evaluating vascular damage will be presented, respectively. The results indicate that vessel constriction and blood flow dynamics could be considered as the crucial biomarkers for quantitative evaluation of vascular damage. In addition, future perspectives of non-invasive optical imaging for evaluating vascular damage of V-PDT will be discussed.

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of photothermal with dinitrophenyl hapten (DNP) for patients with malignant melanoma (MM), Patients with pathology confirmed stage III or IV MM were enrolled. Seventy-two patients were randomized into two groups, DNP alone group (n=36) and DNP plus photothermal therapy group (n=36). The results showed that the patients in the combination treatment group had longer median progression-free survival time (19.0m vs. 12.0m, p=0.007). No severe adverse events were observed in both groups. Thus, the combination of photothermal therapy and DNP maybe a new therapeutic strategy for patients with advanced MM.

Near infrared photoimmunotherapy (NIR-PIT) is a new molecularly-targeted cancer photo-therapy based on conjugating a near infrared silica-phthalocyanine dye, IR700, to a monoclonal antibody (mAb) targeting cell-surface molecules. When exposed to NIR light, the conjugate induces a highly-selective necrotic/immunogenic cell death (ICD) only in target-positive, mAb-IR700-bound cancer cells. This cell death occurs as early as 1 minute after exposure to NIR light. Meanwhile, immediately adjacent target-negative cells are unharmed. Dynamic 3D-microscopy of live tumor cells undergoing NIR-PIT showed rapid swelling in treated cells immediately after light exposure, followed by irreversible morphologic changes such as bleb formation, and rupture of vesicles within several minutes. Furthermore, biological markers of ICD including relocation of HSP70/90 and calreticulin, and release of ATP and High Mobility Group Box 1 (HMGB1), were clearly detected immediately after NIR-PIT. When NIR-PIT was performed in a mixture of cancer cells and immature dendritic cells, maturation of immature dendritic cells was strongly induced rapidly after NIR-PIT. Alternatively, NIR-PIT can also target negative regulatory immune cells such as Treg only in the tumor bed. Treg targeting NIR-PIT against CD25 can deplete >80% of Treg in tumor bed within 20 min that induces activation of tumor cell-specific CD8+-T and NK cells within 1.5 hour, and then these activated cells killed cancer cells in local tumor within 1 day and also in distant tumors of the same cell origin within 2 days. In summary, cancer cell-targeting and immuno-suppressor cell-targeting NIR-PITs effectively induce innate and acquired immunity specifically against cancer cells growing in patients, respectively.

Pancreatic cancer is an extremely malignant disease with high mortality rate. Currently there is no effective therapeutic strategy for highly metastatic pancreatic cancers. Laser immunotherapy (LIT) is a combination therapeutic approach of targeted phototherapy and immunotherapy, which could destroy treated primary tumors with elimination of untreated metastases. LIT affords a remarkable efficacy in suppressing tumor growth in pancreatic tumors in mice, and results in complete tumor regression in many cases. LIT could synergize targeted phototherapy and immunological effects of immunoadjuvant, which represent a promising treatment modality to induce systemic antitumor response through a local intervention, paving the way for the treatment of highly metastatic pancreatic cancers.

Immunologically oriented therapy (immunotherapy) has arguably proved to be the most effective method for treating advanced melanoma, the prototypical chemotherapy-resistant solid tumor. The efficacy and benefit of immunotherapy for other tumors, including those that are at least partly responsive to chemotherapy, is less well established. Breast cancer, one of the most common of the solid tumors in humans, is partially responsive to traditional chemotherapy. We believe that breast cancer patients, like melanoma patients, will benefit from the application of immunotherapy techniques. Here we review the different forms of laser immunotherapy (LIT), a key type of immunologically oriented therapy, discuss its use in melanoma and in breast cancer, and discuss its potentially pivotal role in the immunotherapy armamentarium.

Cancer immunotherapy is the concept of harnessing our own immune system to fight against cancer cells. The most attractive features of immunotherapy include relatively low toxicities compared to traditional therapies (surgery, chemotherapy and radiation), the possibility of eliminating distant metastases and the potential of preventing relapses. After decades of research, its therapeutic efficacy has finally been recognized and a number of approaches has been approved by the FDA over the past 10 years. Dendritic cell vaccine and checkpoint blockade strategies were among the first to enter the clinic, with many other strategies such as peptide vaccine, whole cell tumor vaccine, and adoptive T cell transfer (with Chimeric Antigen Receptors) etc. closely following in clinical trials.
Immunophotonics is developing a novel in situ autologous cancer vaccine (InCVAX) by combining thermal laser phototherapy with immunotherapy. InCVAX is a two-step procedure: (1) Delivery of low-power thermal laser to any accessible tumor to cause partial cell death, increase tumor immunogenicity by releasing tumor antigens and Damage Associated Molecular Patterns (DAMPs). This is followed immediately by (2) injection of our proprietary immunostimulant, N-dihydro-acetylglucosamine (GC), into the laser-treated region to stimulate antigen presenting cells. These two steps work synergistically to enhance the systemic anti-tumor T cell response which is capable of eliminating both primary and metastatic cancers in some patients with advanced, stage III/IV, breast cancer with minimal toxicity. Our approach has the unique benefits of stimulating an immune response against a wide array of tumor antigens, and thus the potential to induce a strong, comprehensive and long-term anti-tumor protection in patients with minimal costs.
Following early data showing efficacy in breast cancer patients, a multi-center, randomized clinical trial is currently underway in South America to consolidate the findings. In addition, we have extended our research of InCVAX to other tumor models and to better understand the mechanism of how GC stimulate the immune system, primarily through activation of antigen presenting cells (APCs). With our data showing therapeutic efficacy of inCVAX in animal and human models, we are confident that inCVAX can bring significant benefit to metastatic cancer patients in the near future.

We have recently developed Laser Immunotherapy (LIT), a targeted cancer treatment modality using synergistic application of near-infrared laser irradiation and in situ immunological stimulation. This study further investigates the principles underlying the immune response to LIT treatment by studying immunological impact of the laser photothermal effect in vivo, in vitro, and ex vivo. Tumor cells were stressed in vitro, and samples were collected to analyze protein expression with a Western Blot. Additionally, a tumor model was designed using bovine liver tissue suspended in agarose gel which was treated using laser interstitially and monitored with both proton-resonance frequency shift MR thermometry and thermocouples. From the bovine liver tumor model, we were able to develop the correlation between tissue temperature elevation and laser power and distance from the fiber tip. Similar data was collected by monitoring the temperature of a metastatic mammary tumor in a rat during laser irradiation. Ultimately, these results show that the laser irradiation of LIT leads to clear immunological effects for an effective combination therapy to treat metastatic cancers.

Melanoma is known as a malignant tumor of melanocytes, which usually appear in the blood circulation at the metastasis stage of cancer. Thus the detection of circulating melanoma cells is useful for early diagnosis and therapy of cancer. Here we have developed an in vivo photoacoustic flow cytometry (PAFC) based on the photoacoustic effect to detect melanoma cells. However, the raw signals we obtain from the target cells contain noises such as environmental sonic noises and electronic noises. Therefore we apply correlation comparison and feature separation methods to the detection and verification of the in vivo signals. Due to similar shape and structure of cells, the photoacoustic signals usually have similar vibration mode. By analyzing the correlations and the signal features in time domain and frequency domain, we are able to provide a method for separating photoacoustic signals generated by target cells from background noises. The method introduced here has proved to optimize the signal acquisition and signal processing, which can improve the detection accuracy in PAFC.

Inflammatory monocytes/macrophages (Mon/Mφ) play an important role in cutaneous allergic inflammation. However, their migration and activation in dermatitis and how they accelerate the inflammatory reaction are largely unknown. Optical molecular imaging is the most promising tool for investigating the function and motility of immune cells in vivo. We have developed a multi-scale optical imaging approach to evaluate the spatio-temporal dynamic behavior and properties of immune cells from the whole field of organs to the cellular level at the inflammatory site in delayed type hypersensitivity reaction. Here, we developed some multi-color labeling mouse models based on the endogenous labeling with fluorescent proteins and the exogenous labeling with fluorescent dyes. We investigated the cell movement, cell interaction and function of immunocytes (e.g. Mon/Mφ, DC, T cells and neutrophils) in the skin allergy inflammation (e.g., contact hypersensitivity) by using intravital microscopy. The long-term imaging data showed that after inflammatory Mon/Mφ transendothelial migration in dermis, they migrating in interstitial space of dermis. Depletion of blood monocyte with clodronate liposome extremely reduced the inflammatory reaction. Our finding provided further insight into inflammatory Mon/Mφ mediating the inflammatory cascade through functional migration in allergic contact dermatitis.

Approximately 8 million people lose their lives due to cancer each year. Metastatic disease is responsible for ~90% of those cancer-related deaths. Only viable circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that can survive in the blood circulation can create secondary tumors. Thus, real-time enumeration of CTCs and assessment of their viability in vivo has great biological significance. However, little progress has been made in this field. Conventional flow cytometry is the current technique being used for the assessment of cell viability, but there are many limitations to this technique: 1) cell properties may be altered during the extraction and processing method; 2) collection of cells from blood prevents the long-term study of individual cells in their natural biological environment; and 3) there are time-consuming preparation procedures. Whether it be for the assessment of antitumor drugs, where induction of apoptosis or necrosis is the preferred event, or the identification of nanoparticle-induced toxicity during nanotherapeutic treatment, it is clear that new approaches for assessment of the viability circulating blood cells and CTCs are urgently needed. We have developed a novel high speed, multicolor in vivo flow cytometry (FC) platform that integrates photoacoustic (PA) and fluorescence FC (PAFFC) and demonstrate its ability to enumerate rare circulating normal and abnormal (e.g. tumor) cells and assess their viability (e.g. apoptotic and necrotic) in a mouse model.

We present applications of a label-free approach to assess the immune response based on the combination of interferometric microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, which makes it possible to simultaneously acquire morphological and molecular information of live cells. We employ this approach to derive statistical models for predicting the activation state of macrophage cells based both on morphological parameters extracted from the high-throughput full-field quantitative phase imaging, and on the molecular content information acquired through Raman spectroscopy. We also employ a system for 3D imaging based on coherence gating, enabling specific targeting of the Raman channel to structures of interest within tissue.

In the application of nanotechnology in cancer immunotherapy, antigen presenting cells (APCs, dendritic cells and macrophages) are preferable target due to their endocytic capacity and suppressed phenotype. Recently, we developed a lipid-based core-shell nanocarrier, which is stabilized by changeable fusion peptides and possesses a sub-30 diameter. With the different peptides, the nanoparticles (NPs) could either target to dendritic cells (DCs) in lymph nodes (LNs) or tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) in tumor environment. After subcutaneous injection, the NPs could targeted deliver the encapsulated antigen peptides (APs) and adjuvants (CpG-ODN) to dendritic cells in LNs, and lead to the antigen presenting and activation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes against tumor. In other case, after systemic administration, the immune regulatory molecules were carried by NPs and targeting delivered to specific immunocytes in tumor microenvironment resulting in the immunosuppressive state broken and tumor growth inhibition.

Accurate tumor segmentation is a critical step in the development of the computer-aided detection (CAD) based quantitative image analysis scheme for early stage prognostic evaluation of ovarian cancer patients. The purpose of this investigation is to assess the efficacy of several different methods to segment the metastatic tumors occurred in different organs of ovarian cancer patients. In this study, we developed a segmentation scheme consisting of eight different algorithms, which can be divided into three groups: 1) Region growth based methods; 2) Canny operator based methods; and 3) Partial differential equation (PDE) based methods. A number of 138 tumors acquired from 30 ovarian cancer patients were used to test the performance of these eight segmentation algorithms. The results demonstrate each of the tested tumors can be successfully segmented by at least one of the eight algorithms without the manual boundary correction. Furthermore, modified region growth, classical Canny detector, and fast marching, and threshold level set algorithms are suggested in the future development of the ovarian cancer related CAD schemes. This study may provide meaningful reference for developing novel quantitative image feature analysis scheme to more accurately predict the response of ovarian cancer patients to the chemotherapy at early stage.

The objective of this study was to compare the detectability of simulated objects within a dense breast phantom using high energy x-rays for phase sensitive breast imaging in comparison with a conventional imaging system. A 5 cm thick phantom was used which represented a compressed breast consisting of 70% glandular and 30% adipose tissue ratio in non-uniform background. The phantom had a 6 × 6 matrix of holes with milled depths ranging from 1 to 0.1 mm and diameters ranging from 4.25 to 0.25 mm representing simulated tumors. The in-line phase sensitive prototype was equipped with a micro-focus x-ray source and a flat panel detector with a 50 μm pixel pitch, both mounted on an optical rail. Phase contrast image of the phantom was acquired at 120 kVp, 4.5 mAs at source to object distance (SOD) of 68 cm and source to image detector distance (SIDD) of 170 cm with a geometric magnification (M) of 2.5. A 2.5 mm aluminum (Al) filter was used for beam hardening. The conventional image was acquired using the same porotype with the phantom in contact with the detector at 40 kVp, 12.5 mAs under SID = 68 cm. The mean glandular dose (Dg) for both the acquisitions was 1.3 mGy. The observer study and CNR analyses indicated that the phase contrast image had higher disk detectability as compared to the conventional image. The edge enhancement provided by the phase sensitive images warrants in identifying boundaries of malignant tissues and in providing optimal results in phase retrieval process. The potential demonstrated by this study for imaging a dense breast with a high energy phase sensitive x-ray imaging to improve tumor detection in warrants further investigation of this technique.

The characteristic performance of a photon counting detector for X-ray fluorescence (XRF) imaging of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) is investigated. The investigations are first performed in three aspects: X-ray photon energy (keV) to pulse height (mV) conversion, noise floor determination, and linear detection ranges. Then, theoretical models are applied to evaluate the detection efficiency of X-ray photons with respect to an increased incident photon rate. Last, through exciting 100% pure GNPs by a conventional X-ray tube operated at a voltage of 110kVp, we acquire XRF spectrum in the threshold mode, based on which multi-energy thresholds are selected for XRF imaging of GNPs with low concentrations. Preliminary XRF imaging results of GNPs obtained in the imaging mode are presented and analyzed. This investigation study is essential to the development of fast and accurate XRF imaging of GNPs as well as other high atomic (Z) imaging contrast agents absorbed in cancerous cells.

In this study, the AuNP k-shell fluorescence spectra were measured by using a 100 mm long collimator to improve the detectability. The AuNPs were suspended in deionized water at different concentrations. The AuNP suspensions were excited by a micro focal spot x-ray tube with 130 kVp, 300 μA x-ray exposures. The emissions of the AuNP fluorescence were measured by a spectrometer located with an angle of 90 degrees with respect to the excitation beam. The fluorescence acquisition durations for each concentration mode were 3000 s. A 1.0 mm Pb filter and a 1 mm Al filter were utilized to optimize excitation beam and fluorescence emission, respectively. As a result, the k-shell fluorescence peaks, 66.99 keV and 68.80 keV of AuNP, were measured and observed in 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 mg/mL concentration modes. The linear relationship between the AuNP suspension concentrations and the number of photons of the fluorescence peaks were observed in the range of 0.1–4.0 mg/mL. The results of experimental measurements demonstrated up to 0.1 mg/mL (0.01 % in weight concentration) detectability.

Temperature distribution in tissue is a crucial factor in determining the outcome of photothermal therapy in cancer treatment. In order to investigate the temperature distribution in tumor tissue during laser irradiation, we developed a novel ex vivo device to simulate the photothermal therapy on tumors. A 35°C, a thermostatic incubator was used to provide a simulation environment for body temperature of live animals. Different biological tissues (chicken breast and bovine liver) were buried inside a tissue-simulating gel and considered as tumor tissues. An 805-nm laser was used to irradiate the target tissue. A fiber with an interstitial cylindrical diffuser (10 mm) was directly inserted in the center of the tissue, and the needle probes of a thermocouple were inserted into the tissue paralleling the laser fiber at different distances to measure the temperature distribution. All of the procedures were performed in the incubator. Based on the results of this study, the temperature distribution in bovine liver is similar to that of tumor tissue under photothermal therapy with the same doses. Therefore, the developed model using bovine liver for determining temperature distribution can be used during interstitial photothermal therapy.

Laser Immunotherapy (LIT) is an innovative cancer treatment modality that is specifically targeted towards treating late-stage, metastatic cancer. This treatment modality utilizes laser irradiation in combination with active immune system stimulation to induce a systemic anti-tumor immune response against metastatic cancer. Nanoparticles have recently been utilized to support and increase the photothermal effect of the laser irradiation by absorbing the light energy produced from the laser and converting that energy into thermal energy. In the past, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been the main choice in nanotechnology, however, recent studies have shown that gold nanorods (AuNRs) are a prospective alternative that may produce photothermal effects similar to SWNTs. Due to the precedence of gold biomaterials currently having approval for use in various treatments for humans, AuNRs are regarded to be a safer option than SWNTs. The goal of this study is to precisely compare any differences in photothermal effects between AuNRs and SWNTs. Both types of nanoparticles were irradiated with the same wavelength of near-infrared light to ascertain the photothermal effects in gel phantom tumor models, aqueous solutions, and metastatic cancer cell cultures. We discerned from the results that the AuNRs could be equally or more effective than SWNTs in absorbing the light energy from the laser and converting it into thermal energy. In both solution and gel studies, AuNRs were shown to be more efficient than SWNTs in creating thermal energy, while in cell studies, no definitive differences between AuNRs and SWNTs were observed. The cytotoxicity of both nanoparticles needs further assessment in future studies. Given these results, AuNRs are comparable to SWNTs, even superior in certain aspects. This advances the opportunity to use AuNRs as replacements for SWNTs in LIT treatments. The results from this study will contribute to any subsequent studies in the development of this cancer modality using photothermal therapy enhanced by nanoparticles.

Hepatocarcinoma, a malignant cancer, threaten human life badly. It is a current issue to seek the effective natural remedy from plant to treat cancer due to the resistance of the advanced hepatocarcinoma to chemotherapy. Resveratrol (Res) has been widely investigated with its strong anti-tumor activity. However, its low oral bioavailability restricts its wide application. In this study, we prepared resveratrol nanoethosomes (ResN) via ethanol injection method. The in vitro anti-hepatocarcinoma effects of ResN relative to efficacy of bulk Res were evaluated on proliferation and apoptosis of human HepG2 cells. ResN were spherical vesicles and its particle diameter, zeta potential were (115.8 ± 1.3) nm and (-12.8 ± 1.9) mV, respectively. ResN exhibited significant inhibitory effects against human HepG2 cells by MTT assay, and the IC50 value was 49.2 μg/ml (105.4 μg/ml of Res bulk solution). By flow cytometry assay, there was an increase in G2/M phase cells treated with ResN. The results demonstrated ResN could effectively block the G2/M phase of HepG2 cells, which can also enhance the inhibitory effect of Res against HepG2 cells.

Hepatocarcinoma, a malignant cancer, threaten human life badly. It is a current issue to seek the effective natural remedy from plant to treat cancer due to the resistance of the advanced hepatocarcinoma to chemotherapy. Puerarin (Pue), a major active ingredient in the traditional Chinese medicine Gegen, has a wide range of pharmacological properties and is considered to have anti-hepatocarcinoma effects. However its low oral bioavailability restricts its wide application. In this report, Pue nanosuspension (Pue-NS) composed of Pue and poloxamer 188 was prepared by high pressure homogenization technique. The in vitro anti-hepatocarcinoma effects of Pue-NS relative to efficacy of bulk Pue were evaluated. The particle size and zeta potential of Pue-NS were 218.5 nm and −18.8 mV, respectively. MTT assay showed that Pue-NS effectively inhibited the proliferation of HepG2 cells, and the corresponding IC50 values of Pue-NS and bulk Pue were 3.39 and 5.73 μg/ml. These results suggest that the delivery of Pue-NS is a promising approach for treating tumors.

Currently, the usage of gold nanoparticles as photosensitizers and immunomodulators for plasmonic photothermal therapy has attracted a great attention of researches and end-users. In our work, the influence of prolonged peroral administration of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) with different sizes on the morphological changes of hematopoietic and lymphoid organs was investigated. The 24 white outbred male rats weighing 180-220 g were randomly divided into groups and administered orally for 30 days the suspension of gold nanospheres with diameters of 2, 15 and 50 nm at a dosage of 190 μg/kg of animal body weight. To prevent GNPs aggregation in a tissue and enhance biocompatibility, they were functionalized with thiolated polyethylene glycol. The withdrawal of the animals from the experiment and sampling of spleen, lymph nodes and bone marrow tissues for morphological study were performed a day after the last administration. In the spleen the boundary between the red and white pulp was not clearly differ in all experimental groups, lymphoid follicles were significantly increased in size, containing bright germinative centers represented by large blast cells. The stimulation of lymphocyte and myelocytic series of hematopoiesis was recorded at morphological study of the bone marrow. The number of immunoblasts and large lymphocytes was increased in all structural zones of lymph nodes. The more pronounced changes were found in the group with administration of 15 nm nanoparticles. Thus, the morphological changes of cellular components of hematopoietic organs have size-dependent character and indicate the activation of the migration, proliferation and differentiation of immune cells after prolonged oral administration of GNPs.

Flow cytometry for single cell counting uses optical measurements to report multiple cell features such as cell morphology, cell phenotype, and microenvironmental changes. Time-resolved flow cytometry is a unique method that involves the detection of the average fluorescence lifetime as a cytometric parameter. Measuring the average fluorescence lifetime is helpful when discriminating between more than one emission signal from a single cell because of spectrally overlapping emission. In this contribution, we present preliminary measurements toward a study that advances simple time-resolved flow cytometry and introduces a technique to measure fluorescence lifetime values from single cells labeled with a Forster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) pair. Specifically, donor fluorophore fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) fluorescence lifetime is measured to identify its proximity to the acceptor fluorophore. We hypothesize that our time-resolved flow cytometry approach can resolve changes in FRET in order to study integrin structures on the surface of leukocyte cells. Our results show that FITC has an average lifetime of 4.2 +/-0.1 nsec, and an average fluorescence lifetime of 2.4 nsec +/-0.2 nsec when engaged in FRET. After the release of FRET (e.g. dequenched) the average fluorescence lifetime of FITC was measured to be 3.1 +/- 0.5 nsec. Phasor graphs reveal large distributions of fluorescence lifetimes on a per cell basis, suggesting the existence of multiple fluorescence lifetimes. These data suggest more than one integrin conformation occurs throughout the cell population. The impact of this work is the addition of quantitative information for FRET efficiency values and determination of FRET calculations using high-throughput data.

As a result of the research the following methods have been proposed for controlling harmful microorganisms: sterilization of water by laser radiation at wavelengths of 425 nm, 355 nm and 308 nm. The results of theoretical and experimental studies on the development and establishment of a system of ultraviolet disinfection of water for injection (UFOVI) intended for research sterilized water for injections. The pipe created a strong turbulent water flow. Performance irradiation laminar flow of 1.5 liters per second. Irradiation was carried out at three wavelengths 425 nm, 355 nm and 308 nm with energies semiconductor laser diode arrays to 4 MJ / cm3. Wavelength tuning implemented current in the range of 10 nm. For large capacities, we have developed a miniature solid state laser, which was used in fluid microorganisms inactivator. In the water treatment process breaks up to 98% of microbes, but can be left among pathogenic viruses destruction which requires special handling.

Non-invasive laser immunotherapy (NLIT) is a viable alternative to traditional cancer treatment because it combines the photothermal and immunological effects of non-invasive laser irradiation and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) with an immunoadjuvant, glycated chitosan (GC). This combination forms SWNT-GC, a photosensitive immunoadjuvant, which creates a tumor-specific immunity that targets both the primary tumor and any metastasis. It is known that NLIT induces anti-tumor as well as anti-metastatic immune responses, but its immunological mechanism is not clear. The objective of this study is to clarify the role of SWNT-GC in cancer cell migration. Panc02 (non-metastatic) and Panc02-H7 (metastatic) pancreatic cancer cells were used in two-dimensional elastomer plug assays to observe the restriction of cell migration induced by SWNT, GC, and SWNT-GC individually. To replicate a three-dimensional in vivo study, a similar assay was repeated using embedded collagen lattices. Both the 2D and the 3D studies confirmed previous results indicating that GC inhibits cancer cell motility. The 2D and 3D studies also showed that SWNT-GC inhibited the migration of cancer cells, but a discrepancy was observed regarding the effect of SWNT alone. The 2D model concluded that SWNT inhibited migration while the 3D model determined that SWNT promoted migration. The results of this study will guide future work to determine the mechanism behind NLIT, including how metastases are eradicated and how the tumor specific immunity is created.

It is generally believed that there are some connections between Alzheimer’s disease and amyloid protein plaques in the brain. The typical symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are memory loss, language disorders, mood swings, loss of motivation and behavioral issues. Currently, the main therapeutic method is pharmacotherapy, which may temporarily reduce symptoms, but has many side effects. Infrared light therapy has been studied in a range of single and multiple irradiation protocols in previous studies and was found beneficial for neuropathology. In our research we have studied the effect of infrared light on Alzheimer’s disease through transgenic mouse model. We designed an experimental apparatus for treating mice, which primarily included a therapeutic box and a LED array, which emitted infrared light. After the treatment, we assessed the effects of infrared light by performing two tests: cognitive performance of mice in Morris water maze, and plaque load by immunofluorescence analysis. Immunofluorescence analysis was based on measuring the quantity of plaques in mouse brain slices. Our results show that infrared therapy is able to improve cognitive performance in the mouse model. It might provide a novel and safe way to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

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Journal of Applied Remote SensingJournal of Astronomical Telescopes Instruments and SystemsJournal of Biomedical OpticsJournal of Electronic ImagingJournal of Medical ImagingJournal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMSJournal of NanophotonicsJournal of Photonics for EnergyNeurophotonicsOptical EngineeringSPIE Reviews